A globally experienced custom encountered during a business meeting is the exchange of paper business cards. Such custom is engaged in so that each involved party might be able to identify and contact the other party at some future date.
Problems arise with such custom, such as loss of the business cards or changes to the contact information of a party from the information contained on the paper business card. There have been several attempts to try and resolve these problems through the use of the Internet. The prior art has used different systems and methods to transfer contact information principally: (i) v-Cards, (ii) electronic business cards sent through email, and (iii) updating contact software that plugs into a user's contact software and communicates with another user having the same software operating in their contact software.
In 1996, a consortium of software companies established a standard for creating a “virtual” business card (v-Card) to facilitate the idea of transferring contact information electronically between individuals using different email or contact information programs. v-Cards can be used and created with contact software programs such as Microsoft Outlook and IBM's Lotus Notes. The principal failing of the v-Card is that once an individual creates a v-Card that is sent to others via email and then saved in the recipient's contact software, the information contained on the v-Card is static—in other words, it does not automatically update itself in the recipient's contact software if the creator alters his contact information. Thus, the creator of the v-Card would need to resend an email containing his v-Card and the recipient would have to resave the v-Card to replace the outdated contact information. The “static” nature of the information transmitted via v-Cards has been a principle impediment in keeping v-Cards from being widely adopted or improving the means by which individuals stay in touch with one another.
Several companies have developed electronic business card products that get embedded in a user's email and sent out to recipients. Two of these companies are World2one and MyEBC.com. These electronic business card products allow a recipient of an email that contains an electronic business card to save the electronic card in a proprietary software application developed by these companies. The software applications are similar to electronic rolodexes. Once an electronic card is saved into these electronic rolodexes, if the creator later modifies his contact information, he does not have to notify the recipient of the change. The electronic card of the creator contained in the recipient's electronic Rolodex is automatically updated.
World2one's has an electronic business card product that consists of an image of the business card being sent from the World2one central server to a recipient's email, so that any change in information made by the creator of the electronic business card is also visible in a recipient's email immediately following the change made by the creator. Thus, an image sent in an email months prior to the information change is updated so that once the recipient looks back at the old email, assuming it has been kept by the recipient, the recipient will see the new information on the business card since the image is being sent from World2one's server to the recipient's email.
The difficulties with the types of products described above is that a recipient needs to download a proprietary software application in order to store the electronic business cards, or in the case of World2one, save the old email so that the recipient can view any new information.
Another company that has developed electronic business cards that are sent via email is Hotbar.com. This company does not provide a proprietary software application where its electronic business cards can be stored by a recipient, but rather the information contained on the electronic business card can be placed in the v-Card format with the image of the business card being displayed in the creator's email. A recipient can then save the creator's business card information in the same fashion that an individual would save a v-Card, as described above. Since the Hotbar.com product simply utilizes the v-Card format, the problems described above persist. That is, once an individual creates a v-Card that is sent to others via email and then saved in the recipient's contact software, the information contained on the v-Card is static—in other words, it does not automatically update itself in the recipient's contact software if the creator alters his contact information. Thus, the creator of the v-Card would need to resend an email containing his v-Card and the recipient would have to resave the v-Card to replace the outdated contact information. The “static” nature of the information transmitted via v-Cards has been a principle impediment in keeping v-Cards from being widely adopted or improving the means by which individuals stay in touch with one another.
Another approach taken by some companies to solve the problem of updating contact information between parties is to have users download a piece of software that “plugs into” their address books and allows individuals to automatically update their contact information with those users that are utilizing the same software. These companies are Plaxo.com, Good Contacts, and Corex Technologies Accucard product. These products operate in the following fashion. Once an individual downloads these software products onto their computer, the software then reads through the user's contact software and will automatically generate an email to individuals identified in the user's contact software, and request that the individual checks the current contact information contained on that individual that is in the user's contact software—the individual's contact information is displayed in the automatically generated email. If the individual's current contact information is different from what the user has displayed in the email as being contained in the user's contact software, the individual is asked to update his information and send it back to the user. In this scenario, the obligation is on the recipient of the email that was sent by the user of the software to update his information and send it back to the user.
In the alternative, a recipient of an email that was sent by the user of the software could opt to also download the proprietary “plug in” software into their address books and then their contact information will be automatically updated with other users that have the “plug in” software without the sending of update requests via email. The deficiency of this solution is the requirement that a recipient utilize the same “plug in” software as another user in order to keep from receiving annoying requests to update their contact information in the software user's contact software. The requirement that a new software application be downloaded and installed on a user's computer, which software must then be learned, provides a deterrent for many individuals from utilizing this solution.
Accordingly, a need has developed to provide an improved way of keeping the information associated with an electronic business card in an up-to-date fashion. The present invention solves this need by providing an electronic business card that can be updated solely by the actions of the card holder.